So long and thanks for all the digital communications planning
By Dan O'Connor July 20th, 2007
In News · Stories
Sob
This, gentle reader, is my last day here at RMM. I am somehow managing to type this through my gales of delighted laughter the trail of hot, salty tears splashing like hailstones onto my PC. As I wipe away the Julia Stevenson-esque effluvia from my face, I essay a brave smile and take a moment to try and invent some happy memories think of all the good times I’ve had with Mat, Iain, and the Australian one Leo. Sigh. I could hardly wish to work with a more progressively magnificent bunch of guys (not since I gave up on being Take That’s roadie, leastways). The humour! The wit! The intelligence! The humanity!
But there have been dark times. In retrospect, I ought never to have run off with Mat’s first wife. Certainly not without letting her regain consciousness anyway. And stealing Iain’s credit card to buy sub-prime mortgage properties in the southside of Chicago was probably a mistake - as was renting those properties to the CrackBangingDragons gang for headquarters. They seemed such nice boys. I accept, too, that Leo had every right to be upset about the death of Peanuts Bojangles, his prize-winning pure-bred dalmation puppy, but someone had to put that chip-pan fire out and I didn’t exactly see him rushing into the kitchen with a damp teatowel.
But we’ve muddled through these little hiccups (how we laugh now at the collapse of the Ghanaian economy! Who knew a faked wikipedia entry could so discourage foreign investment?) and bonded in a way that in most decent company is considered unseemly.
Anyhoos, I’ll still be blogging here at RMM from time to time, keeping you thrilled and delighted with the lightness of my prose and the depth of my insight. And I’ll be blogging over at my new blog which the adventurous amongst you can find here - drop by for a visit; the kettle is absolutely never on.
But my time draws closer. To quote Bilbo Baggins “You can take your bloody ring and stick it up your arse” “This is it. I’m going. Goodbye.”
1 Mat Morrison // Jul 22, 2007 at 10:07 pm
I’m really going to miss Dan. A lot.
He’s off to take up a role as professor of Medical Ethics at Johns Hopkins University. Which is good for him (and them) but less good for us.
He’s been a hugely important part of our team here. Always ready with the snarky comment or biting put-down, he’s taught the three of us a great deal about our employment policies.
He has swung wildly between displays of moral and political consciousness that only an academic can afford, and outright rebellion.
He has shown himself to be obsessed by Paris Hilton, and the worst kind of tabloid entertainment news.
He has shared his love of Doctor Who and LOLPresidents. He has frittered away his time reading Wonkette and the Daily Kos and in maintaining his various blogs (and guest blogs). What you see on RMMLondon is only a fraction of his prolific output.
As far as Dan was concerned, we paid him to turn up. Anything that we got on top of that was a bonus. He never understood why we couldn’t send a town car to collect him in the mornings.
And yet. And yet.
Dan has been a constant joy to work with. Funny, literate, subversive, argumentative, brilliantly clever. He has been the perfect person for me to work with. I don’t know if I’ll find someone as perfectly suited to the way I want to work. He has improved many of my dinner parties, and has (on occasion) been stolen by my guests to improve their own.
I’m really going to miss Dan.